Blackcomb Gondola — Local services in Whistler Resort Municipality

TLDR: We were misled into purchasing the tickets. We did not receive what we paid for. Restaurant closed early. No views. Customer service was horrible.

Full review: We didn't receive the experience we paid for. We had hoped to celebrate my girlfriend's birthday with a memorable trip to Whistler. While exploring the shops nearby, we came across the Blackcomb gondolas and were unsure about purchasing tickets. However, the person at the ticket counter sold us on the amazing views and the nice restaurant at the top of the mountain, which ultimately influenced our decision to buy the tickets.

Upon arriving at the summit, we discovered that the restaurant had closed early, and heavy cloud cover obscured any scenic views, rendering our trip useless.

There were no written signs at the ticket counter or verbal warnings about potential restaurant closures or how the weather could impact our experience. The only reason we bought the tickets was because of the ticket agent promising a nice restaurant and a scenic view, neither of which we received.

We later found out that the experience we were sold was a misrepresentation of what we paid for. When we spoke to the customer service manager, Salim, he told us the nice restaurant wasn't actually a nice restaurant at all and that we should have just bought something from the cafe. This statement was unbelievable and incredibly dismissive, disregarding our entire situation.

Expressing our concerns to the manager proved frustrating, as he made excuses about inadequate staffing issues and even tried to shift the blame onto us for not researching enough. Despite him acknowledging the misrepresentation by the ticket counter, even going as far as calling it a "learning experience" for the staff, Salim refused to provide an appropriate solution. He offered us a $10 coupon to the restaurant, which seemed insincere as it would have forced us to spend more money repurchasing tickets. It also totally disregarded our situation as he knew we could not stay another day. We considered accepting the offer and asked if we could use it at a later time, perhaps if we ever came back, but he refused.

The company's staffing and training issues should not be at the expense of their customers. Customers should be able to trust the information provided by ticket agents and expect proper compensation when their experiences fall short. We hope the company will take responsibility for its staffing and training issues to prevent similar situations from happening...

First of all, my rating is only for the beautiful snowcapped mountains. You feel like you are on another planet. It was truly beautiful. There are few rides covered under one ticket. Peak to peak gondola (Whistler mountain to Blackcomb mountain) Whistler village gondola (takes you to the Whistler mountain) Blackcomb gondola (takes you to the Blackcomb mountain) 4.Peak express/Open air chairlift - this takes you to the top of the world summit in Whistler mountain. And you must be at least 1m tall to ride on this.

If you come down from one of the Blackcomb or Whistler village gondola, you won't be able to go up again. So do everything on top before taking the ride back.

Once you are in the Whistler mountain , you can take trails to get the Alpine experience. There's giant snow walls in the Whistler mountain if you take Pika's Traverse route.

The peak express is a must take as it will take you to the top of the world summit, the cloud breaker sky bridge and raven's eye lookout. You should be wearing a good jacket for cold and wind (it was about 1 degree when I was visiting in mid June). You might experience a mix of snow and rain well depends on the day. But in a sunny day, the mountain views are spectacular.

The ticket prices are hefty. You should plan this trip in the morning hours to make use of your ticket money. However, the gondola rides operation depends on the weather conditions as well. That was the tricky part, I took all the rides except for the balckcomb and Peak to Peak gondola due to weather conditions. They stopped the operation of it - which I understand. However, the ticket should allow you to go back if the weather conditions get better because we are paying for the full experience. At least they should give a refund, if it stopped due to weather conditions. The ticketing agents are very rude if there is a situation like this. Even though it's a sunny day, you can't predict how it will be when you go to the top. I experienced windy, rainy and snowy conditions and sunny weather as well. Wear good shoes with a gripper if you are planning to take trails.

The cafés are fine where you can get warm up, and have hot chocolate. They serve food items too. Washrooms are good, souvenir shops are also a bit pricey compared to the souvenir shops in the village.

We met a volunteer from the village where she guided really well to have the best experience. They really care about the people who are paying...

WARNING Do not bother going any time after 12pm

We drove to Whistler for a day trip not really knowing what we wanted to do so we went to guest services to ask about what is around and what we could do.

It was about just before 1:30ish and the lady at the desk recommended we purchase the site seeing package. She said there are a bunch of restaurants up there and we can do the peak to peak as many times we want, really insinuating that we would have plenty of time up there to sight see and eat and have a drink.

We scanned our tickets to go up at 1:45ish, when we finally got up there we went into Christine's to get something to eat, only to find out that they finished serving at 2:15.

The server then told us that the hill closes at 3pm which the lady at guest services did not tell us.

She also said that was not right and that we should have been told this information before purchasing our tickets.

We literally got up to the top, couldn't get anything to eat, everything was closing, we had time to take a quick look, use the restroom and come back down.

We are are left feeling upset and disappointed that we paid full price ($117) for half the experience with no knowledge or information provided when we specifically went to guest services to get that information.

The assistant manager and manager were absolutely terrible and smirking at us as they told us that there was nothing they could do and that they would pass our feedback on.

Checking the reviews after the fact, I can see that this has happened before so obviously this information has not been passed on.

I tried reaching out via their live support and was disconnected from it.

I then sent an email and still have not received a response.

This was appalling customer service coming from guest services who tried to blame us for not doing our research when the whole reason we went to guest services was to get information.

Another worker told us they should not have sold us the tickets that late in the day yet no one was willing to rectify the situation.

I feel scammed, and just completely...